A couple of suggestions

I've finally gotten round to writing my first proper application in
Dolphin 6. Being a daily user of VSE 2000 at work I'm finding I miss a
couple of VSE's features in Dolphin. They're only small things but
they are helpful.

1) It is possible in VSE to re-order instance variables in the class
definition. Generally I find it rather useful to be able to sort the
instance variables in the list into alphabetical order. Would it be
possible to have a 'sort instance variables' option. This is
particularly useful in GUI classes with lots of the blighters.

2) VSE displays changed packages, classes and methods in bold or a
different colour. Makes it easy to see what you've been up to. It
would be nice if Dolphin could do this too. Dolphin STS marks packages
as changed but it would be nice to have a marker for changes classes
and methods too.


I'm not complaining, Dolphin is great and has a lot of features that
VSE doesn't and I wish it did have, however I do find I miss these two
VSE features in particular.


The Brave Sir Robin.

On Thu, 06 Apr 2006 23:27:11 +0100, The Brave Sir Robin wrote:

> 1) It is possible in VSE to re-order instance variables in the class
> definition. Generally I find it rather useful to be able to sort the
> instance variables in the list into alphabetical order. Would it be
> possible to have a 'sort instance variables' option. This is
> particularly useful in GUI classes with lots of the blighters.
>
>
Two thoughts:

If you reorder the instance variables you'd also have to adjust binary
filing methods, so it's not just a cosmetic thing.

Last time I built a window with lots of controls, I got tired of
repeatedly assigning instance variables to presenters. My spark of
brilliance on that day was to use a dictionary to store the buggers, keyed
on their views' names. Ten minutes later I found that I had successfully
reinvented a bumpy wheel, when Dolphin already had a perfectly round one
called presenterNamed: IIRC. So depending on how much you actually do with
your presenters, you might consider not referencing them by instance
variables.

s.

The Brave Sir Robin wrote:

> 1) It is possible in VSE to re-order instance variables in the class
> definition. Generally I find it rather useful to be able to sort the
> instance variables in the list into alphabetical order. Would it be
> possible to have a 'sort instance variables' option. This is
> particularly useful in GUI classes with lots of the blighters.

Binary filing differences aside - you could write this behavior in
about 10 minutes - look at the method #addInstVarName: , it has most of
the clues you need. Also look at Ian B.'s goodies (or Intelli-Dolphin)
for examples on how to add things to a browser menu or hook in a
keystroke.



> 2) VSE displays changed packages, classes and methods in bold or a
> different colour. Makes it easy to see what you've been up to. It
> would be nice if Dolphin could do this too. Dolphin STS marks packages
> as changed but it would be nice to have a marker for changes classes
> and methods too.

Yes thats a nice to have - I think somone has a goodie kind of like
that for Dolphin5, again you possibly could add this behavior yourself
- but its probably going to take a while to figure that one out. Don't
forget the Method | Browse Other | All Changed methods menu item that
at least gives you a useful list of what you've changed.

Tim